A day after she allegedly slapped a rival politician at the Delhi airport, Sasikala Pushpa, member of Parliament (MP) from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), was sacked by the leader of her party, J. Jayalalithaa.

On Saturday, Pushpa, who is a member of Rajya Sabha, was flying back to Chennai, when she ran into Tiruchi Siva, an MP from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), on her way to boarding her flight. The two got into a scuffle and Pushpa reportedly slapped Siva for "speaking ill about the AIADMK party and the cadres," as she told The News Minute.

Speaking at the Rajya Sabha today, she went to the well of the House and made a dramatic declaration. "There is a threat to my life. I am being pressured to resign from my Constitutional position. Sir, please help me," she told Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien and broke down.

While Kurien advised Pushpa to write to the Chairman of the House and Vice-President Hamid Ansari about her fears, her party's supremo took a less charitable view of her behaviour. Within minutes, she was stripped of her primary membership of AIADMK for "bringing a bad name to the party".

In her plea to Kurien, Pushpa also said she been slapped by a "leader". "Where is women's security in this country?" she asked. Although Kurien asked her to not name anyone who was not present there to defend themselves, the 40-year-old later told NDTV that it was Jayalalithaa who had slapped her.

Pushpa had been elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2014, when she was mayor of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu. In January, Jayalalithaa had removed Pushpa as the AIADMK's women's wing secretary. Although members of the opposition supported her right to speak up in Parliament, an AIADMK politician apparently went up to Kurien and requested Pushpa's remarks to be expunged.